Generally, the ink used in a color inkjet printer is classified into two types, i.e. a dye ink and a pigment dye. The dye ink or the pigment dye is a colored material that selectively absorbs visible light. Moreover, the dye ink or the pigment dye is a colored material with a specified color. Generally, the dye ink has the affinity to fibers and other materials, the ability of selectively absorbing the light through water or other media, and the dyeing capacity. Whereas, the pigment ink has no dyeing capacity for fibers and other materials, and is insoluble in water. In other words, the pigment ink is insoluble in the ink solvent and has a waterproof property, but the dye ink is soluble in the ink solvent.
For most inkjet printers, the water-based pigment ink is the most popular. As known, the water-based pigment ink is waterproof and has a high anti-light coefficient. Moreover, the use of the water-based pigment ink may generate low environmental pollution and can be printed on the ordinary paper with desired output quality. However, the manufacture of the pigment ink needs a high technical threshold, and the pigment ink is costly and has large particles.
Moreover, the current color inkjet printer usually employs four kinds of inks (e.g. a magenta ink, a yellow ink, a cyan ink and a black ink) to perform the inkjet printing task. Generally, in views of the printed color levels, the four color pigment inks are inferior to the four color dye inks. In a case that a color inkjet printer with more than seven monochromatic inks is employed to perform the inkjet printing task, the printed color levels of the pigment inks are possibly better than the dye inks.
From the above discussions, the dye ink and the pigment ink have their advantages and disadvantages. In addition, the print media and the printing quality for the dye ink and the pigment ink are distinguished. In the current color inkjet printer, the ink filled in the ink cartridge is either a dye ink or a pigment ink. In addition, the ink type fails to be freely and simply changed by the user according to the printing requirements. For example, if the user wants to print an image on a bright and vivid article, it is preferred to use the ink cartridge containing the dye ink. Once the user wants to print an image on the waterproof article, the ink cartridge containing the dye ink is no longer feasible. Meanwhile, the ink cartridge containing the dye ink should be replaced by an ink cartridge containing the pigment ink. Before the ink cartridge containing the pigment ink is installed, it is necessary to realize whether the ink cartridge containing the pigment ink is supported by the color inkjet printer or not. If the ink cartridge containing the pigment ink fails to be supported by the color inkjet printer, the ink cartridge or the color inkjet printer should be changed, so that the operating cost is increased. In other words, the use of the ink cartridge containing a single dye ink or a single pigment ink becomes hindrance from operating the color inkjet printer.
Therefore, there is a need of providing an improved ink supply structure for allowing the user to select one of the dye ink and the pigment ink to perform an inkjet printing task.